So yesterday I did the 5-hour kayaking tour out to Valdez glacier. I had been fussed about it for some time, but in the end i went anyway and am glad I did.
It turned out to be rather a mild adventure as adventures go. As the unpaired person on the tour, my kayaking partner was the guide, which meant I could do as little as I pleased. As that portion of the tour is quite short, that made it easy-peasy.
Anyway. Here’s where we started out. Not overly prepossessing, and at this point I was wondering just how much I was going to enjoy the tour.
But the guide, who goes by the name of Bagel, and yes there is a story and yes he will tell it, loves what he does and is excited and knowledgeable about glaciers and glacial processes, so much of t he value of the tour was becoming a bit educated about them oneself.
For instance: The glacier we were headed for is between the two mountains, over toward the left. It used to be joined to the glacier you can just see peeking through the two mountains on the right. Where there was one glacier, there are now two. The water you see is from the melting back of the now-two glaciers. It has been measured recently by the USGS abd turned out to be 600 feet deep, but because of the opacity due to silt, you have little sense of deep water beneath you.
Once in, we paddled around to some of the broken-off bits first. But not this one, because it has a crack almost all the way across it and they expect it to break apart soon, and think it’s likely to roll when it does, so it would be dangerous to be close by when that happens.
Only one other couple were on the tour, which made it nicely relaxed. George and Nancy.
We did paddle over to some other chunks that are believed to be more stable at this point, and got to get close up to the ice.
We traded cameras a couple of times so we coule get pictures of ourselves on our own camera. Their idea, not mine, but regardless, there I am. The one in front.
Another few shots of ice close up.
In the one two-above, you can see bubbles of air trapped in the ice. Snow is white because if all the tiny bits of trapped air; in a glacier, the lower snow gets that air squeezed out and into larger bubbles, leaving very dense, blue ice.
After awhile, we headed over to a place to land the kayaks on a shelf of ice. Bagel carefully exploded that we had to test anywhere we might step in the water with our paddle, because you can’t see more than an inch or two into the water and the ice shelfs drop off very steeply. He helped each of us out himself, and we walked up to a flattish boulder for lunch. Bagel had brought a thermos of hot water, and made us each a hot beverage. Here’s Nancy warming herself with her hot chocolate.
We walked around on the glacier for upwards of two hours, with Bagel directing our attention to the details and explaining how the things we saw were formed. For example, here’s an oblation cone.
The grit that accumulated in that spot protects the ice underneath from melting, so the surrounding ice melts away and leaves the cone formation. Rocks sometimes achieve a similar effect.
Eventually the rock will fall off, like the boulder below fell off the ice to the right.
Much of the time, if you didn’t know you were walking on a glacier, you’d just think you were walking across rock scree like that we see all through the Rockies.
But when you see intense blue between the pebbles and grit . . .
. . . you know you’re not on just another mountain.
I just thought this looked cool. It’s what happens when the grit, which is exceedingly fine, settles down out of the water. The water has to be very still for this to happen.
Once up there and walking a short way, we could see the glacier proper. The part we walked on is apparently floating–bobbing–on water and will eventually break off. By “eventually “, read “in three or four years”.
It wasn’t long before George spotted a mountain goat on the mountain opposite. I never got a good shot of it–this is the best of a poor bunch. His head is on the right, in the brush, presumably eating.
George continued watching the goat for the rest of the time, and got several pretty good shots. They emailed them to me, but I can’t figure out how to get them into the post, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that that was a goat.
Shortly after that the battery in my camera died, so there’s a lot I didn’t get pictures of. Bagel suggested I warm it up by putting it inside my jacket, so I did, and whan we were almost back to the boats, I managed to get a few more shots. This was just a cool formation.
This shows one of two developing crevasses that will, in the next few years, split the bobbing part of the glacier longitudinally into three parts.
The sun came out back towards town after awhile, so I took some pictures looking back where we’d come from. Apparently we were back in the kayaks by that time, though that’s not how I remember it. Couldn’t decide which picture I like better, so put them both in.
Later that day, after resting up, wine, and supper, CJ and i went for a walk. On the way back, I saw this pair of eagles fly over and perch on the light pole. Tried to catch them in the air, but wasn’t quick enough. But they sat there long enough for me to get a picture in which you can tell they aren’t just part of the light fixture. Only had the phone with me, so it’s a bit blurry.
The best kept secret of Valdez, as far as I and CJ are concerned, is the bunnies.
You see them running around all over town, and even though CJ wasn’t allowed to chase them, their presence definitely enhanced her walks. Here’s a few more, though I never got quite as close as above again; CJ started looking for them and whenever she spotted one, she’d get noisily excited, and they’d run. Or they’d run, she’d spot them, and then get noisily excited–happened both ways. How many bunnies can you find in this next shot? It’s blurry–one-handed, zoomed phone shot, with excited dog pulling on other hand, so really not bad.
Heading to Haines, so it’ll be a few internetless non-blogging days now.
Glaciers really create their own reality. I remember asking why one saw no birds while driving through the tundra, and was told the glacier melt carries so much silt that fish cannot survive, so no bait for birds. The shot of blue ice you describe as dense looks like it has a bird caught in it, or reflected, or an illusion? A really great kayaking tour.
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Mysterium tremendum et fascinans!
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